You would expect from the title that this book would just be a boring rehashing of some 18th and 19th century works. In this you would be totally mistaken. It is filled with many little known facts and surprising tidbits. Marshal Ney's, who is rarely represented as thoughtful, writings on grand tactical maneuvers is gone over in one part of the book. Under the chapter 'Operation of Combined Arms' you will find these three definitions by the author:

1) Moral ascendancy over the enemy and cause him to collapse

2) Hold him in place and punish him until he collapses

3) Maneuver the enemy into such a position where he has no chance of success and collapses

The book abounds with information This is not limited to the French, but also their allies and enemies.

I have to say that I normally like my history dry, and without too much of the personal added to it. That being said, even I was a little hesitant to read this book. I have tried to read a few other books that have like sounding titles. Even I was forced to finally accept that they were too dry even for me. So, I had steeled myself for a trek through a desert before starting this book. I was extremely and pleasantly surprised once I started reading the book. This book by its very nature will appeal to only a subset of wargamers and history readers. The other point I would like to point out is that the title is a bit of a misnomer. It does include everything from the title, but also includes a lot more. These two chapters will illustrate this:

Operation of Combined Arms

Grand Tactical and Strategic Operations

The book is filled with illustrations to accompany the text. These are extremely helpful for we dolts to follow the sometimes intricate maneuvers. The book also has a large amount of tables in it. These range from musket accuracy to the different armies' marching speed, and the rate of fire of artillery. Most board wargamers are a bit oblivious to the information in this book, even if we can name all of the battles Napoleon fought and commanded in. Almost all of our games already have this information calculated for us. Not so for our table top brethren. To them this book should become their bible. If not that, at least it will give them a lifetime of arguments over their beautiful reproductions of battles.

The information in this book is invaluable to anyone who wants to try and understand battle during the Napoleonic age. More than that, it is a reference material for wargamers and designers of those also.

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